Saturday, November 3, 2012

BareMinerals and Breakouts?

About a month ago I gave into the fuss about BareMinerals and purchased the starter kit. The blog post is here. I've used one mineral foundation product before (from some kiosk at the mall) and it was fantastic. Gave my skin a dewy glow and covered up any imperfections perfectly. When I walked into the store, the nice ladies offered to do my make up, so I could see how good the make up really is- and I loved it! My skin looked flawless- almost as if I wasn't wearing any make up at all. It was fantastic. I purchased the BareMinerals Ready SPF 20 foundation in Medium Beige, and have been wearing it every day since. (I apologize for the lack of quality in these photos! They're not edited or anything, just me and BareMinerals Ready Foundation).

Recently, in the last few weeks I've noticed I've been breaking out a lot more- with cystic acne. This doesn't usually happen! I'll get a few break outs around that time of the month, but never so much otherwise. I thought maybe my skin was just acting up, but it hasn't stopped. (I should say that I have not had any issues in the past with makeup allergies.) I wore the BareMinerals out for my birthday on Oct 22, and my skin looked great when I walked out the door. The next morning I woke up with two huge breakouts on my forehead! That are still not cleared up by the way. I started doing some research on the product, and I found that many people were complaining that bismuth oxychloride is the ingredient to blame.

It's presence in the foundation gives it the dewy glow because it adheres so well to the skin. It's present in small amounts in many cosmetics so one may not have noticed any problems, but the amount of it in mineral make up is much greater. It can cause acne, cystic acne, itching, redness, and swelling of the skin- especially if you have acne prone or sensitive skin. Looking at the ingredients of my BareMinerals make up, the Ready foundation has bismuth oxychloride, as well as the Warmth bronzer (and BareMinerals Original)- which may be the culprit to my breaking out on my forehead, nose, and chin (some of the places where you would put bronzer). I did notice though, that the Mineral Veil and BareMinerals Matte foundation does not have the compound, so I may give that a try, and compare the effects on my skin with both. The lack of bismuth oxychloride contributes to the Matte finish of the foundation, since the compound is what gives the makeup it's glow.

I'm not positive if this is the culprit, but from my research, it really could be. It is a pity though, I do love the finish of the mineral make up, but it's not worth the well being of my skin. Here are the links to the website, the ingredients are listed right above the reviews: